You are my future
by LucyTheMarauder
Summary: Collection of Outlaw Queen one-shots and drabbles. First chapter: "She was completely sure that being pressed against your partner and swaying slowly from side to side were not part of the dance. Yet here she was, with her head resting on his shoulders and his strong arms hugging her tightly to him, probably making a scene in the middle of the ball."
1. A dance to remember

**Prompt: How about Outlaw Queen Missing Year? Ball with a waltz, lots of eye sex/tension, sass, with an almost-kiss blocked by the Uncharmings.**

* * *

She knew every step as well as she knew every spell in her mother's book - step towards partner, rotate to the left, stop, grab hand, twist, stop, step away from partner, bow, step towards partner, rotate to the left, and so on - and she was completely sure that _being pressed against your partner_ and _swaying slowly from side to side_ were not part of the dance. Yet here she was, with her head resting on his shoulders and his strong arms hugging her tightly to him, probably making a scene in the middle of the ball. She could feel eyes piercing through them, judging them or _her_ ,most likely, but she realized she couldn't care less. Not that she blamed them, the Oh-So-Evil Queen dancing with no one less than the Prince of Thieves. They were a sight to be behold.

It all had started at the council meeting; their discussion about the Wicked Witch was starting to get as repetitive and unhelpful as usual, so her mind started wandering to other more interesting thoughts such as _why in heavens was the thief staring at her? He should be paying attention to Snow White_ and _has he been to the Forest lately? Because the stink seems to be more intense than usual_ she probably would have asked him out loud if it wasn't for the little Merry Man sitting on his papa's lap _because apparently now the band of Lazy Men were to occupied on a hunting trip to take care of the boy_. Regina sneered at the thought, _wasn't the kid accustomed to the wild anyway? Surely a war conversation was no better than a few deers getting killed. At least not for this child._ Apparently she sneered a bit too loud because a second later the silence in the room became so evident, it dragged her off of her thoughts.

"Do you have something to say, Regina?" Asked Snow, lifting an eyebrow at her. She had to bite her tongue to not make a sarcastic remark about how there were lots of things she had to say.

"No."

"Then you agree?" _What?_

"Well..." She looked around the table to see if any of the faces of the people surrounding her would give away what she was supposed to agree or disagree with. And then she saw him. The thief. Imperceptibly nodding at her.

"...I supposed I do." A glimmering smile spread through Snow's face and she realized that trusting the thief had been a mistake.

"Then a ball it is." And right then and there, Robin Hood, who happened to be smirking at her, became number one on her enemies list.

The ball had been Snow's idea of uniting the plebe with the nobles. Since Storybrooke had changed mostly everyone's thoughts on social class, they wanted to show, to those who hadn't been affected by the curse, that social class was just a label and that they were all equals. But of course they weren't, Regina knew that. It was easy to feel as equals in Storybrooke were you had your beautiful house and the richest people in town lived in a mansion and payed taxes. Yet here people either lived in slums or in castles, there was no in-between, but Snow didn't seem to understand this and her desire to unite everyone would bring up more troubles than solutions. The Enchanted Forest was as prepared for social equality as they were to use phones and the internet. They just weren't. And this made her hate this forsaken land just a little bit more.

She had decided to look as regal as she could -to remind everyone that she was still the queen even if she wasn't evil anymore- but then Snow had begged her to look 'more casual' and maybe use lighter colours, and just for the sake of getting rid of her step-daughter, she had agreed. She really should stop agreeing to everything Snow asks her.

Since her dark colored dresses had basically been banned from the ball by Snow, she opted to use one of her old gowns. It used to be one of her favourites - the light blue of the velvet reminding her of Daniel's blue eyes that were now nothing more than a distant memory - and she probably would never admit it -not even to herself - but she was glad she could use Snow's stubbornness as an excuse to use the dress again. Her makeup softer than usual -and just in case, she would also blame Snow for that- and her hair up and curlier than it would normally be, to let to view the open back of her dress.

You could say she looked different than usual, she wouldn't say it was a shocking different, but the way people turned their heads when she walked by, made her question if in reality she actually looked much more different than she realized.

The stares were annoying her to no end, _didn't they realize she was still the queen._ She could hang them all on the courtyard just for daring to look at her in the eye. And maybe she would, they still call her the evil queen, so why not give them what they ask for? She decides that the next person she sees staring, will be the first hanged in the morning -she knows she won't hang anyone come the morning, but at least imagining people hanged will take her thoughts away of how self-conscious the idiots around her were making her feel. And then she sees him, _the thief_ , walking towards her with a smug smile on his face. And oh how she would love to swipe it off his face by either slapping or kissing him, she just can't decide yet.

It was probably too obvious to turn around and walk away, _and since when did she care if she was being obvious?_ , so she squared her shoulders and plastered a disgusted grimace on her face, maintaining eye contact with him. Just to let him know she's not pleased by his approach, or by his mere existence to be honest.

"Your Majesty, I must say you are quite the sight"

"So you've finally learned the proper way to address me. I'm impressed, thief. Maybe the next thing you should learn is not to steal clothes from a royal when you happen to be a guest in said royal's castle." Just as she decided to ignore his compliment, he decided to ignore the venom in her words.

"I'm glad to know I can impress you, milady. And I appreciate your concern about the origin of my clothes, but I assure you they've been lend to me by Prince James. And even if I must admit I've been tempted by the many goods I've seen in the castle; the only thing I plan to steal from a Royal, is a dance from the Queen."

Regina lifted her eyebrow in a mocked glance "A dance from _me_?"

"Unless there are other Queens at the ball tonight. I believe the Queen is _you_ "

The sniff she let out in response, was something she knew her mother would've categorised as 'unladylike like'

"I know _I_ am the Queen. I just don't understand why?"

"Why what, Milady?"

"Why would you dance with me? And I thought we had established that it is 'Your Majesty', not 'Milady'"

"We had, but I decided to ignore that." Robin didn't show any signs of being affected by the cold stare she gave him "And as for 'why', Milady, I don't see why someone wouldn't want to dance with a beautiful lady such as yourself."

"A beautiful lady that happens to be the Evil Queen"

"Ahh but the 'Evil' moniker seems something of an overstatement to me. Bold and audacious perhaps, but not Evil."

"Believe me, thief, the name served me well"

"And I'm sure it did, milady, I'm just saying that right now I can't see anything evil about you"

"Well don't get accustomed to this looks, because the reason of it, is this damned ball, and it won't be repeated."

It took Robin some seconds to understand that she though he had referred to the way she specifically looked tonight. As if he could see her as evil when she was wearing her normal clothing.

"I didn't mean tonig-"

"You wanted to dance. Let's do it. Now" Robin was taken aback by her sudden change of behaviour, but took in her acceptance of his offer and led her over to the dance floor.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what changed your mind?" The contact of his hand in her waist had shivers running through her spine.

"Swap places with me."

"Wha-"

"You want to know what changed my mind? Swap places with me." Robin did as he was told, positioning himself where Regina had been a second before.

"You see that man behind me? The one with the Santa type of beard?" Even though he didn't understand what a 'santa' was, he nodded at the sight of the only man with a beard behind her.

"He was coming to ask me for a dance." Robins raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. "Does it surprise you that someone would want to dance with me other than you?"

"Not at all, Milady. What surprises me is that you would prefer to dance with me instead of him. I'm sure a Lord is more worthy of dancing with Her Majesty, than a common thief like myself."

"He was my husband's friend" Regina avoided his eyes, and he decided it must be a delicate subject for him to inquire into.

"Then I'm glad I could be of use. Even if I must admit, I'm not a great dancer." He's attempt to lighten up the mood failed miserably, she still won't meet his eyes and the only thing he can think of to comfort her is to hug her.

Of course he doesn't really hug her -he doesn't want to be roasted for his boldness- but he does move his arms around her waist to a point where it could still be considered part of the dance -judging by the stares they are attracting to them, no one thinks it's part of the dance.

He'll blame his bluntness on the intoxicating perfume of her hair if needed, yet he still meant every word. "I lied. Before. When I said the only thing I planned to steal was a dance with you. I'm also planning to steal your heart, Regina, I've been planning it for a long time now.

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 **Let me know what you guys think, and if you want me to I'll write more**


	2. Her secret place

No one would have ever said Regina was the adventurous type. Not when she always looked so elegant, even as a child. Or maybe she had never had the chance to be adventurous; living under the vigilant eye of her mother didn't give her many opportunities to climb trees and play in the mud, and then of course, when she was old enough to fly away and explore the world, New York is as far as she got.

Maybe under different circumstances she would have enjoyed a more rustic life, but those were not her circumstances. It had been only three months after moving to her apartment, and she had felt the need to escape from the city if only for a few hours. Of course she had to work the next day, so leaving the city was not a possibility. If she had been back at home she would have probably been riding, as a way to escape the stress that seemed to follow her everywhere she went; but she didn't have her horses in New York, so she had to improvise.

She was aware the building had a rooftop that once upon a time was used by her old neighbors to tend clothes. Nowadays the only people that ever went up there were technicians if they were needed. And that's how she found her secret place. Not completely secret if she was being honest with herself -everyone knew how to get to the rooftop- but at least it was unused and she could use it to take a break when she got too stressed.

That's where she found herself when she felt like a failure and that giving up and going back home was her only option - not that Cora would ever let her go back home; maybe if she begged and cried and married some old rich man. The view of the city made her feel in peace with herself, and she always felt better after spending some hours there by herself. Her not-so-secret place was private enough for her. Or at least she though it was.

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It had been such a long, stressful day at work that she almost threw the lamp on Mr. Gold's desk at his red-haired, self-absorved, pitchy-voiced secretary. She didn't even showered when she got home, just threw her bag on the sofa, grabbed her keys, and went to her secret place to calm down.

Ten minutes had passed when she heard a noise. No, not a noise. Voices. And they were growing louder, which could only mean people were getting closer to her rooftop. She though of hiding before the owners of said voices got there, but then she realized how stupid that idea was: she wasn't doing anything wrong, it's her building too.

The door opened and she just stood there staring at a sandy blonde guy of bright blue eyes and an adorable dimpled smile. He was attractive. And so was the blonde girl clinging to his arm with her lipstick smudged all over her mouth. They were clearly having fun and decided to take it to her rooftop. The though of someone having sex anywhere in her secret place made her shiver -but then, again, it wasn't truly her secret place. Not really hers at all.

The couple in front of her took a notice of her presence and she could already feel the tension rising in the air. They both looked like children caught sneaking sweets. This was stupid, they were all adults, so she decided to be the first to act like one.

"Which one of you lives here?" They both seemed caught off guard by her question but the man rushed to answer.

"That would be me." He had an accent, probably English.

"I've never seen you before. Do you come here often?" The though of him bringing his dates to her rooftop made her uncomfortable. She was already seeing the queues of sexy women he probably brought with him.

"Not really, just when I want to clear my mind or be somewhere more... well, private" Oh so he did bring his dates here; the scoundel.

"I understand, I do to." He looked surprised, he was probably imagining her having wild sex on every single spot of the rooftop with a really hot guy. Good.

"One would have thought we would have met before, don't you think?"

"One would have thought." His blonde companion seemed to feel left out and was about to say something, but Regina really didn't want to hear her voice. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. It was nice to meet you." His smell reached her when she walked pass them. She wouldn't have known how to describe it, other than that he smelled like forest. Maybe it was forest pine deodorant? Whatever it was, she knew she wouldn't forget it soon. She was about to close the door when he shouted her to wait.

"Robin." It took Regina some seconds to realize he wasn't calling her Robin, but was telling her his name.

"Regina." He nodded at her answer and she smiled, then closed the door and walked the way back to her apartment. It was a bittersweet feeling knowing that the attractive English guy- _Robin,_ she corrected herself- shared her secret place but was there with someone else.


	3. Chapter 3

Her first year in Storybrooke she had received an invitation for 'Granny's Dinner Special Christmas Celebration' by post. She remembered signing a consent to let them celebrate at the dinner -even knowing that she would get complaints from grumpy neighbors if the celebration carried on for too long- but by no means did she expect to get invited.

She knew what Christmas was, the same way she knew how to drive and how to cook (even if it took time for her lasagna to become her speciality) as soon as she woke up in Storybrooke. Yet still, she wasn't sure how the festivity could make such an impact on people's attitudes, that not only would they greet her with a smile, but they had even invited her to celebrate with them. Curiosity won over her and she decided to spend the cold night, drinking eggnog and eating a persimmon pudding among the citizens.

She remembers having a good night, enjoying Granny's specials, and even making small talk with Dr. Hopper. But it was when she saw Mr. Gold walk in that she realized she had been invited out of fear, something Gold was quick to see as he walked out immediately after locking eyes with her. She had felt humiliated, not for being invited because they feared her, but for believing that anyone would actually want to celebrate with her.

Since that night, and for the next seventeen years, she would always give her approval to the celebration at Granny's, but would spend the night doing paperwork as she would have any other night. She wouldn't give the date more importance than any other day.

Her first Christmas with Henry would always be a memory she'd cherish for the rest of her life. She had spent the night singing every Christmas song she could remember from the radio to a smiling Henry as he would make cooing noises every time his mother reached a higher note. Henry had seemed to love his new reindeers onesie, and she would have made him wear it even if his chubby little hands wouldn't have hold onto it as strongly as they had. She made sure to take a picture of Henry when he fell asleep while sitting on his highchair, with the onesie still clutched to his hands.

When Henry got older and the idea of a fat man bringing him presents during the night became a reason for his hyperactivity in Christmas Eve, so she decided to buy him a special gift that he could open before going to sleep just so he would calm his excitement and would be able to sleep through the night. It never worked, for he would always stay up for another hour until his mother would tell him that Santa doesn't bring presents to little boys who stay up all night to wait for him; but she kept buying one extra present for him to open at night, just to see him happy. She always reserved the best present for Christmas morning, both presents would always somehow be connected to each other -if she gave him new pencil colours at night, then he would receive that colouring book he had been asking for months come the morning - yet Henry never seemed to realise, or he did but decided to humor her. Her little prince had always been too clever for his age.

When her son's whole focus became his biological mother, Regina figured that if she didn't want her son to leave in the middle of the night to wish Miss Swan a Merry Christmas, accepting Granny's invitation would be a wise idea. To humor Henry, Regina let him spend most of the night with Emma, because she knew he would go back home with her, he would open his present, and then in the morning he would open his other one while eating pancakes with her.

When she had to ground her son in Christmas Day, after Emma brought him from her apartment after he just appeared at her door, Regina decided that it was a priority to get Emma Swan out of her town as soon as possible - not that it hadn't been a priority before, but now drastic measures would be taken. She needed to keep her son with her.

But a year later she wasn't celebrating Christmas in Storybrooke, her home, her son, everything she held close to her heart was gone. Snow and Charming had insisted on her going to the Christmas Eve ball, but not even the thief's dimpled smiled son had been able to convince her. She spent the night locked in her chamber trying not to think about the bittersweet memory of their last Christmas together. There was no reason to celebrate. She had nothing left.

When she woke up she decided to stay in bed and sleep well past the morning, knowing that the dining hall would be full of the cheerfulness that Christmas mornings tended to have, and that her sour mood would be appreciated by no one. Not even herself. It was occasions like this one that made her wish she had found a reason not to curse herself.

Regina didn't bother joining the crowd for lunch either. She knew she was pushing it and that her ever-worried stepdaughter was bound to make an appearance in her bedchamber soon; yet she couldn't find it in herself to move from her bed. Seeing the Christmas decorations and the children playing with their new toys would only make her long for her son's presence even more. It wasn't that she didn't want to think of Henry – her memories of him were the real reason why she was still standing – but on a day as significant as Christmas she didn't think she was strong enough to get through it with only her memories of him; she needed her son with her.

She could imagine that he would be eating Christmas turkey by this time – if days and nights and time itself worked the same way in both lands – eager to try out the new video game he probably would have received as a present. She could only hope that Emma didn't get him a violent game, hopefully the fake memories she gave her would lead Emma to buy an educational video game.

When a knock on the door was heard, Regina had to admit she was surprised that Snow hadn't just barged in. She slipped into her silk robe before preparing herself to open the door and order her to leave her alone. However, she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shouting at anyone.

She looked from side to side in the hallway, but no one was there, perhaps she had imagined the knock on the door? It wouldn't be the first time – or the last – that her mind had played tricks on her. She was about to close the door when she saw it: a box-shaped object, wrapped in what seemed to be colored white paper, with a note next to it that read ' _Your Majesty_ ' in child-like handwriting.

She grabbed the box and the note before looking around from her chamber door for the deliverer of the present. Since there was no sign of a small child anywhere nearby, she decided to go back into her room. Her guess – and she knew it was the correct one – was that an enthusiastic Roland had prepared a present for her and had waited to give it to her this morning when she hadn't showed up. Maybe he had even put it underneath the Christmas tree, hoping that she would find it on her own. She hated to disappoint, yet again, another child. She could even imagine Roland's hopeful eyes saddening from the realization that she wouldn't be joining the festivity.

She would blame it on the roller-coaster of emotions she was feeling that her impulsive reaction was to leave the still wrapped present on the bed and run from her bedroom, having only the silk robe to cover her nightgown, in order to find a curly haired, dimple smiled, four year old.

She ran and ran, ignoring the shocked stares people gave her, and was about to come to an abrupt stop at the closed entrance of the dining hall. She took a deep breath and was about to open the door when she heard a voice calling for her.  
"Regina?" She turned around to face her stepdaughter.

"Snow. Have you seen Roland? The thief's son?" Snow's face showed confusion, but to Regina's delight, she decided not to voice it.

"I know who Roland is, Regina. I saw Robin taking him to bed on my way here, they shouldn't be too far."

Regina left Snow and started running towards the thief's bedchambers as soon as she heard that was their destination. She was out of breath by the time she made it to the closed door and had to lean on it to catch her breath.

"Your majesty?" Apparently, in her desperation to get to the bedroom, she had run right past Roland and his father without realizing.

Regina ignored Robin's questioning glance and knelt down to Roland's height.

"Roland, thank you so much for your present." A smile spread across the child's face and she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she hadn't opened it yet when he asked her if she had liked it.

"It was lovely, sweetheart. Thank you so much."

"Papa helped me make it but it was all my idea, Your Majesty."

Regina was starting to regret not opening the present before rushing to find the child, so she decided that changing the focus of the conversation would be a wise idea.

"You can call me Regina, Roland. After receiving such an amazing gift it would only be fair that I let my new friend address me by my name." Roland seemed amazed at the idea of being friends with the Queen.

"We are friends?" His hopeful question made Regina smile, while – even if the two participants of the conversation were oblivious to this – Robin smiled at the interaction happening in front of him.

"Well, friends give each other gifts on Christmas Day, and since you gave me yours already, I came to find you to give you mine." Robin was about to tell her how it wasn't necessary for her to give his son anything, but stopped himself when he saw her subtly nod at him to let him know that she wanted to do this. She extended her arm to wave her hand and they saw a wrapped box appear from a purple cloud of magic. "This one is for you."

After receiving a nod of approval from his father, Roland grabbed the present from Regina's hand to start unwrapping it.

"What do we say to Her Majesty, Roland?"

"Thank you, Majesty."

"Regina." She corrected him with a smile. "And it was my pleasure. I hope you like it, Roland." Regina nodded at Robin as a goodbye and walked away before Roland finished unwrapping his present. She knew he would like his colored pencils as much as Henry had when he was his age.

She was ready to lie down on her bed when she realized that her wrapped present was still lying on it. Tears filled her eyes when she carefully unwrapped it to reveal a wooden angel-shaped ornament. She would make sure to put it on the tree come morning.

Regina was sitting on the floor in between Robin's legs to rest against his chest while cradling little Rose in her arms. Henry was sitting on one side of the couch reading 'Twas the Night before Christmas' out loud for their family to hear, while Roland, sitting on the opposite side of the couch, was eating what she thought to be the last gingerbread man.

She was listening to Henry's voice and thinking about how deep it was now compared to when she was the one reading the book to him, when she felt a kiss on her neck. Looking over her shoulder she found the promise of more kisses in Robin's eyes, but she signaled at the couch with her head, pointing at the children. Roland had started to show his disgust over people – and especially his parents – kissing; and even if he wasn't as obvious as Roland, she knew that after being witness to some of their passionate kisses, Henry would be uncomfortable if she decided to indulge the former thief and kiss him.

Understanding what she meant, Robin only winked at her and gave her a quick peck on the lips, before encircling her waist with his arms and continuing to listen to the end of the story.

"It's almost time." Henry informed them as soon as he finished the story. Regina checked the clock: 23:53. She would have waited two more minutes if it hadn't been for Roland's pleading eyes.

"Alright, let's swap presents before Santa comes to bring his."

The next twenty minutes were spent between running to get their presents from their secret hideouts and exchanging them. Roland had made drawings for everyone and she felt herself tearing up when she realized she was labelled as 'mama' whenever she appeared in one of his drawings. Robin held her by his side with one arm and kissed her temple while holding Rose in the other. Henry had decided to buy what he called a 'grown up' type of present and, with Snow's help, he got them a video baby monitor to replace the old audio one they were using. Roland had received the collection of Narnia books, which he considered to be 'big boy's books'; and Henry had gotten a set of Marvel comics he had been asking for for months.

They waited for the kids to go to bed before exchanging their presents. Sitting on the couch, facing each other, she decided to give him her present first.

"Merry Christmas, Robin." She said and extended the gift to him. She watched his face light up with happiness when he unwrapped it. His present was a framed picture of the five of them that had been taken by Mary Margaret some weeks before.

"I love it." He said, and put the fame next to him on the coach, to cradle her face in his hands. Regina started to part her lips, expecting to feel his lips on hers soon, but he only kissed the tip of her nose and retreated to his place to grab her present.

"Merry Christmas, my love." She grabbed the present from his hands and unwrapped it to see Page 23 in a golden picture frame. "I once told you this page represents the hope of a future together, so I saw fit for it to be the way to start it. Turn the frame around." She stared at him in amused confusion for a few seconds, but did what he asked after receiving an encouraging nod from him.

She turned the frame around to reveal a note that read _'Will you marry me?'_

 _ **Fin**_


	4. You're the only one I trust to do this

**Two alternatives to the prompt: You're the only one I trust to do this.**

* * *

She thought he was joking, but the longer she stared at him the less convinced she was. Surely he was messing with her, there was no way robin would dare cross the line between friendship and 'something else' that was between them.

"Are you serious about this?" Her usual mask of confidence had fallen, and he could see her uncertainty and nervousness in the way her expression turned from an incredulous smile to a frown.

Robin's sheepish smile wasn't helping her self-control, but she didn't want him to have any doubts. She didn't want him to regret it.

"You're the only one I trust to do this." Regina could see the truth behind his eyes, and felt a rush of mixed emotions inside her. She knew she shouldn't do this, she knew that as soon as it happened everything would change between them. But who was her to deny her best friend's wish when she so selfishly wanted to grant it. "I want you to be my first time, Regina."

* * *

"You're the only one I trust to do this." That's what he had said and Regina had to keep reminding herself that's why she was here in the first place, as she stared at the dimpled man across the room.

He had asked her to go with him as his date to Marian's wedding, implying that he wanted to pretend there was something more between them than a friendship (and unrequited love from her part). She had thought that meant they would pretend to be together during the evening, and maybe this way she would have a taste of what a relationship with robin would feel like. But now, while she saw her friend shamelessly flirting with one of the bridesmaids she had to wonder if she wasn't good enough for him to even be a pretend-girlfriend.


End file.
